A Canadian man wanted in the US in connection with the murder of two registered sex offenders shot himself on a crowded bus, police said yesterday.As a web register carrying the names, addresses and photographs of 2,200 sex offenders in the state of Maine remained offline yesterday, investigators tried to establish a connection between the two men shot dead in their homes on Easter Day and the young Canadian, who had been in the state visiting his father. Joseph Gray, 57, was shot at about 3am at his home in Corinth in central Maine. Five hours later and 80 miles away, there was a knock at the door of William Elliott, 24, in the town of Milo. Elliott, like Gray, was a registered sex offender, and had served four months for abuse in 2002."He went to the door, opened it up, and the guy just started shooting," the man's father, Wayne Elliott, told the Bangor Daily News yesterday. "He kept shooting after he fell to the floor."... http://www.guardian.co.uk

Delays in the renovation of the United Nations headquarters, caused chiefly by the United States, are adding $225,000 a day to the project's costs, a U.N. official said Monday. The United States is the lone holdout on the committee that must approve the next $100 million needed to proceed with the estimated $1.6 billion renovation, said Fritz Reuter, the U.N. official overseeing the program.The projected cost of the project was good up through April 1. Every subsequent day of delay adds an estimated $225,000 — $3.8 million so far, he said.U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the United States only wants to grant approval for some $23.5 million because the General Assembly needs to agree on how to proceed with the project....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,192072,00.html

An overcrowded bus speeding home from a religious festival veered off a highway emergency ramp and crashed through a metal barrier, plunging more than 650 feet into a ravine. At least 67 people were killed, including four minors. Four others survived Monday's plunge from the highway, considered one of the 15 most dangerous in Mexico. The bus had already traveled for more than 10 hours as it returned from an Easter week gathering in the western city of Guadalajara to the passengers' home state of Tabasco, on the Gulf Coast. Rescuers ended their search for victims after recovering 63 bodies, State Attorney General official Rosa Elvira Gonzalez said. She said four others died in area hospitals. Officials did not say if the driver survived. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/17/world/main1505154.shtml?source=RSS&attr=World_1505154

A senior member of the Vietnamese Communist Party has warned that corruption threatens its survival. A politburo member, Phan Dien, was speaking before the party's 10th congress opened on Tuesday. His comments follow weeks of widespread media coverage about a multi-million dollar scandal involving the management of major infrastructure contracts. The country's transport minister has been forced to resign after allegations that funds were used for gambling. On an almost daily basis, the Vietnamese press reveals more about this scandal and the senior officials involved in it. It centres around a transport ministry project management bureau. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4917466.stm

Although the US is resisting pressure to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions through direct talks with Tehran, rather than sanctions or military strikes, it still intends to meet senior Iranian officials for discussions on Iraq at which it will demand an end to Iranian meddling, according to Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador in Baghdad.He is to head the US team at face-to-face talks, which will be the first formal diplomatic meeting between the two countries since the Islamic revolution in 1979 and are expected to open in Baghdad shortly. Leading Republican and Democratic senators have urged the Bush administration to engage Iran in full-scale talks, but in an interview with the Guardian Mr Khalilzad made it clear that the talks would be limited to Iraq. The US wanted Iran to halt aid to Iraq's sectarian militias, and stop smuggling al-Qaida fighters and weapons across the border, he said....http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,1755750,00.html?gusrc=rss

There has been fighting between US troops and insurgents in the Iraqi capital and the city of Ramadi. US troops were involved in a seven-hour clash in Baghdad's Adhamiya district after insurgents attacked Iraqi security forces. In Ramadi, insurgents launched a coordinated attack on a government building, US military officials said. Earlier, the bodies of 12 men were found in Baghdad, Iraq's interior ministry said. A military spokesman said US troops took part in fighting in the Sunni Muslim-dominated Adhamiya district in the north of Baghdad. Troops went in to provide support to Iraqi security forces after about 50 insurgents attacked. The spokesman described it as "quite a battle". He said five rebels were killed and one member of the Iraqi security forces was injured. There were no US casualties, he said. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4916920.stm